Evenstill
by GreenCalenWen
Summary: The last in my Rosie stories (i think!). Nearing the end of her life, Rosie looks back on it, and the gentle hobbit who has always been at her side. please r/r


~*~DISCLAIMER-don't own 'em, just love 'em. This will be my last for this sort of Rosie/Sam series. Please check out my other Rosie stories, Snapdragons, Back, and Seed, if you like one! I love reviews and even flames help heat my room! Thank you! ~*~  
  
Even Still  
  
He still loves me.  
  
It's been many years now, yet he still does. He still flashes me his shy smile every time we catch glances. Still holds my hand as we sit in the garden he so lovingly tends. And though many years have passed and those same mouths and hands are much for the wear, he still fills me with the same childish joy as when we were small. The same young infatuation as when our fondness grew. The same glowing pride as when we first became parents. And the same love as has always been.  
  
We're old now. No doubt. It shows in our bodies, and even in our hearts and minds. Though he still seems full of grace and fun, I'm beginning to feel my age. I know I shan't be around for much longer. My bones ache, and my heart is full. But I do not regret a thing that has happen. Nor will I regret death. My time has been well spent, and happily so, for he has always been at my side.  
  
For even though it shows externally, age has yet to reach our souls. My Sam. My star. Still with me. And I still with him. Still.My last days, hours, minutes, are filled with memories of the past and of the present.  
  
We've thirteen children now. Though hardly to be called children. All grown, now, grown.Most remain here in the Shire, but a few have traveled out. Their father's blood is in their veins. I can still recall when I was bearing Elanor, how proud he was when I told him. My blood was late, and my stomach felt taut. He stayed with me all through it, through the pain, the sickness. We would lay in the garden, in the same one we lay in now. My belly bulged out, my laces loosened, as I lay on my back. Sam would lay his golden head on the round, singing softly the old songs he had learned on the voyage of the Ring. The words would echo in the clouds drifting by above. He would whisper them, and I would feel them ripple throughout my body, as if the baby inside me was soothed by the sound of his voice, just as I was. And still am. Still.  
  
He sits at my feet, now, resting his head in my lap, as I sit on a wooden chair. One hand gently buries in his curls, the other fingers the silver band on my fourth finger. It has tarnished with love in the sixty-two years it's been since the blessed year when my Sam gave it to me. I still even have the sunset-colored snapdragon he attached it to, pressed and dried in the red-bound book he keeps, magically still the same reddish orange it was when it was fresh. I still remember.  
  
Those same ginger flowers adorned my hair and his wrist on our wedding day. Such a beautiful ceremony.May-day, the first of May. We held it in our gardens, of course, though then they were Mr. Frodo's gardens, Bag-End still inhabited by him. The flowers were in bloom for spring, yet seemed to shimmer and glow on that day, beautiful reds and yellows and blues and purples and greens marking the way as I walked slowly to my Sam. Sam.standing there so noble and proud, yet still softened in his humility. He took my arm, and we walked up to the judge. He was still smiling his shy smile-oh dear Sam, what's to be shy of?-but there were crystal tears filling his brown eyes. And he just looked so simple yet loving, so meek yet so important, I can still see it as if it were today.  
  
Today.today he looks at me, with love in his eyes, yet worry too. My breath is getting shorter. Life is ebbing away.but no matter, all I want is he by my side. All I've ever wanted is Sam. The night of our wedding, when we laid as lovers for the first time. Sparks were in the air that night, heating our bodies as they melded as one. Moist skin brushed moist skin, our bodies flowing in the earthly rhythms. He held me, touching me, kissing me, embracing me, his cool touch tingling on my body. All I knew then was how he was all I wanted. He was my Sam. He is my Sam.  
  
And now we face the last step together. And even still, he is by my side. My only regret is that I have to leave him alone. But he will not die. He will follow Frodo into the Grey Havens, the last of the Ringbearers. And he will be happy. My head now lays in his lap, as the garden and the day slowly drift pass. His fingers brush my hair, now greyed. He whispers sweet stories of his elves, and his flowers, his voice soothing, flowing through my brain. I can feel myself be lifted up, beyond this world, as I hear three last words, "I love you." And as my eyes close on my lover's face, all I can reply is, I love you as well  
  
Even still.  
  
~*~FIN~*~  
  
  
  
please r/r!! 


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